Vehicles traveling on routes depend on the routes having a defined or consistent shape to ensure safe travel on the routes. As one example, rails of a track on which a rail vehicle moves need to have a defined shape that is free or substantially free (e.g., within manufacturing or installation tolerances) of deviations from the defined shape. Thermal misalignments are one example of misaligned rails in a track that can present a hazard to an approaching rail vehicle. These misalignments can include sun kinks, as the misalignments develop along the route during hot weather conditions when conductive components of the route (e.g., a rail) expand. The expansion creates compressive tension in the metal component, which causes the rail to buckle or otherwise become misaligned.
A thermal misalignment in a rail can include a lateral bending of the rail that is outside of a straight shape or designated bend in the rail. A length of a thermal misalignment that poses problems for travel of a rail vehicle may be on the order of forty to sixty feet, or twelve to eighteen meters (e.g., along the length of the track). Such a thermal misalignment can cause the rail to deviate from the intended or previous location of the rail (e.g., the location or shape of the rail as previously installed on a surface or as previously repaired) by as much as thirty inches or more (e.g., seventy-six centimeters).
Detection of these types of thermal misalignments in a route can aid in ensuring safe travel of vehicles over the route.